By Jed Buelow
Co-Editor, Sports, Nature Editor
For the second straight year, the Lady Hatchet swim team swam exhibition races against a newly formed Mosinee swim team to avoid blowing the score out of the water in the Great Northern Conference season home opener at Hatchet Pool Thursday.
Tomahawk set the tone early and often as the 200-yard medley relay team of Megan Miles, Kylee Theiler, Molly Mott and Juliana Skubal ran away with the opening race winning easily in a time of 2:03.87. As was the case most the evening, the race for second place was where most the action occurred, as Abby Jaecks, Karlie Woodall, Savanah Ristau and Annie Begotka just missed out on taking runner up as they tapped the finish line just a tick behind Mosinee’s top team finishing in a time of 2:26.34.
The Lady Hatchets would pay the Indians back in the next race, as Aly Carstensen took 1st in the 200 free in a time of 2:34.19 and was followed to the finish line by Teegan Wenzel and teammate Abby Jaecks to take the top three scoring spots in the race.
Freshman M. Miles kept it going in the 200 IM, as she scored her second 1st place finish of the evening taking the top spot in a time of 2:36.14. Tomahawk continued to drop the hatchet on Mosinee in the 50 free as Molly Mott, Dalla Dosch and freshman Joanna Phillips took the top three spots to make it another big win for the Lady Hatchets.
The widening scoring margin gave senior K. Theiler the opportunity to swim the 100 butterfly as she finished in 1st in a time of 1:02.26. She was followed to the finish line by teammate S. Ristau who claimed 2nd place.
The Hatchets took the top two spots in the next two races as M. Mott and J. Phillips went 1,2 in the 100 free and A. Begotka and A. Carstensen went 1,2 in the 500 free. The 200 free relay was also dominated by Tomahawk taking the top two spots before the Lady Hatchets dialed things back allowing Mosinee to score all the points in the final three races of the night in the 89-55 conference win.
Earlier in the week Tomahawk traveled to Wausau East where the fell to the Lumberjacks in a non-conference tilt by a score 118-50. Despite the fact the loss was the first for the Lady Hatchets in head-to-head competition in the last three years Tomahawk still had a number of swimmers who churned out dominant performances in the defeat.
Hatchet phenom swimmer K. Theiler broke the pool record in the 500 free, one that was 13 years old, as she tapped the finish line in a blistering time of 5:15.97. The Hatchets also got personal best swims from Julianna Skubal, A. Begotka and Teagan Wenzel in the loss to the east-siders.
The Hatchets are back in action this Thursday, Sept. 12 as they host Colby at Hatchet Pool at 5:30 p.m. Over the weekend Tomahawk will face some top competition as they travel to Ashwaubenon to take part in the big multi-divisional Jaguar Invite that begins Saturday, Sept. 14 at 10 a.m.